WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today the House Judiciary Committee approved by a 22 to 12 vote H.R. 7, the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," authored by U.S. Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.). This bipartisan bill would permanently prohibit taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for abortions.

Family Research Council Director for the Center for Human Dignity Arina Grossu responded with the following comments:

"This is a victory for women, their unborn children, and taxpayers who should not be forced by the government to pay for someone else's abortion.

"We applaud the passage of this bi-partisan pro-life legislation to remove abortion funding from Obamacare and apply the long-standing Hyde Amendment across the government. Most Americans, regardless of their view on abortion, oppose government funding for the atrocity of abortion. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act restores government neutrality on abortion by removing government funding for abortion and yet allows private health insurance to cover abortion.

"We also know that government funding for abortion will increase the number of abortions, a prospect troubling to all but a handful of Americans. With the Obamacare rollout, it has become clear that many health plans being subsidized by the government cover elective abortion. Even more incredible is that Obamacare requires an abortion surcharge, which in most cases is not even revealed to consumers shopping for a health care plan.

"One member at last week's hearing falsely claimed that the Hyde amendment fully prevented government funding of abortion. However, Hyde does not apply to the nation's capital and the provision stopping abortion funding in D.C. was repealed in 2010. As a result, Americans have paid to abort hundreds of unborn children at a total cost of $185,000 in taxpayer funds. Hyde applies to other funding streams, not the District. Although this abortion funding restriction for the District was restored in 2011, these taxpayer-funded abortions demonstrate how the annual funding restrictions on abortion are tenuous. The passage of H.R. 7 would make this abortion-funding restriction permanent along with other government abortion-funding provisions. It's time to permanently remove government funding for abortion," concluded Grossu.